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Published: Wednesday, 01 January 2025 at 09:30 AM
From the Bachs to the Von Trapps, these are history’s most musical families
Read on to discover more about history’s most musical families…
History’s most musical families… the Von Trapps
‘So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodnight…’ You probably know the scene. It’s that moment in The Sound of Music in which all seven von Trapp children – Liesl, Friedrich, Louisa, Kurt, Brigitta, Marta and Gretl – take their leave from Captain von Trapp’s grand party by performing a little song. As their father looks on proudly in front of his admiring guests, each child does a charming little turn before heading upstairs – and only a curmudgeon would point out that, in the 1965 film at least, Kurt’s high F is clearly dubbed.
Little Kurt’s vocal deficiencies evidently didn’t trouble the critics, as the movie won five Oscars. It also proved one of the most commercially successful pictures of all time, introducing millions to a host of memorable songs and instantly making the von Trapps the most widely known musical family in history. This was not just fiction, either, as the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical was based on the exploits of the real-life Trapp Family Singers, who toured in Austria and then, after fleeing the Nazi regime, the US, performing everything from Monteverdi and Holst to folksongs and carols. As well as singing, they also played instruments and even composed their own music.
Musical families… nature versus nurture
The von Trapps are among many examples of significant musical talent extending to more than just one member of a family. Not that we should be surprised by this. There’s the small matter of genes, for a start. And then there’s the effect of being brought up surrounded by music. Many are the young performers who tell of having been inspired by hearing parents or elder siblings play and wanting to have a go themselves – being able to make music within a family group often cements that enthusiasm further.
History’s most musical families… the Bachs
Having a very large family increases the chances of producing a musical offspring, of course. Captain Georg von Trapp fathered an impressive ten children in total; a couple of centuries earlier, Johann Sebastian (JS) Bach managed twice that number, among whom were Wilhelm Friedemann (WF), Carl Philipp Emanuel (CPE), Johann Christoph Friedrich (JCF) and Johann Christian (JC), all of whom enjoyed renown as composers and performers.
Remarkably, in fact, until Mendelssohn championed him in the 19th century, JS was by no means the highest regarded of the Bachs – CPE, a brilliantly inventive keyboard composer plying his trade at the court of Frederick the Great, and JC, the ‘English Bach’ whose operas and concert series made him the toast of London in the 1760s, both stood higher in the pecking order. Moreover, JC had a significant impact on the next generation of musicians, not least the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who, meeting him during a trip to London in 1764, played keyboard duets with him and, deeply impressed, returned home clutching several of his scores.
Musical families… the Mozarts
Accompanying Wolfgang on that trip was, of course, his father Leopold, who recognised his son’s genius at a very early age and was determined to squeeze every last drop out of it. To what extent Leopold’s devotion to showcasing his son’s brilliance might have come at the cost of his own output as a composer is hard to judge – scholars seem to differ as to how good he was – though there is little doubt he was a phenomenally able violinist and teacher.
More frustrating is the case of Wolfgang’s older sister, Nannerl, the other participant in the Mozart family talent tours of Europe. Also a child prodigy, this time on the keyboard, Nannerl saw her career brought quickly to an end when she reached a marriageable age (and as such, dare one suggest, was deemed less marketable as a performer). Tantalisingly, letters from Wolfgang suggest she may well have been a fine composer too… but no trace of her works survive today.
History’s most musical families… the Haydns
While Wolfgang was complimentary to his sister in his correspondence, he and Leopold rarely had good words to say about anyone else. JC Bach was an exception, as was Joseph Haydn, with whom the Mozarts rubbed shoulders in Vienna and to whom Wolfgang paid tribute with his set of six ‘Haydn’ Quartets Op. 10.
Perhaps, though, the Haydn that left his trace most evidently in Mozart’s music was not Joseph, but his younger brother, Michael. Greatly admired as a composer by his renowned sibling, who rated some of his music better than his own, Michael Haydn produced a large volume of highly accomplished works including a Requiem that quite clearly foreshadowed Mozart’s own – both Leopold and Wolfgang were at the 1772 funeral at which it was first performed, so would have been familiar with it. Had the family name not been dominated by his brother, might Michael Haydn be better known today?
Musical families… the Mendelssohns
That theory could definitely be applied to Fanny Mendelssohn, though in her case prejudice on account of her gender played a big part. Snottily informed by her father that, for her, being a composer could only ever be ‘an ornament’ while her brother Felix would be able to make a ‘profession’ out of it, Fanny also suffered the indignity of seeing some of her songs published under his name – and, for all his expressions of love, little brother also shied away from publicly supporting her talent as a composer, instead going along with what dad wanted. Eventually, Fanny lost patience, chose to go it alone and got her songs published under her own name. Being part of a musical family isn’t always an advantage, it would seem.
History’s most musical families… the Strausses and Scarlattis
While the Bachs, Mozarts, Haydns and Mendelssohns are the obvious big-hitters among the multi-composer families, there are several others to be found. Such as the Strausses – father Johann I, plus sons Johann II, Josef and Eduard – who supplied 19th-century Vienna with waltzes, marches and operettas galore. Or, heading back to the Renaissance era, there are the Venetian Gabrielis, Andrea and his celebrated nephew Giovanni, while the Italian peninsular also later gave us the father-and-son duo of Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti.
Musical families… in the 20th century
Among 20th-century composers, we find the sisters Nadia and Lili Boulanger – the former better known today as the composing teacher par excellence, the latter tragically short-lived – plus a father-and-daughter combo in Gustav and Imogen Holst and, more recently, Elizabeth Maconchy and her daughter, Nicola LeFanu.
The big screen, meanwhile, has been regularly adorned by music from an equally big Hollywood dynasty: the Newmans, beginning with nine-time Oscar-winning film composer Alfred, and continuing through his younger brothers Lionel and Emil, sons David and Thomas, daughter Maria and nephew Randy. And let’s not forget stage musicals, where we find Andrew Lloyd Webber, son of British composer William and brother of Julian, the cellist.
History’s most musical families… the Lasker-Wallfisches
Which brings us rather neatly onto families of performers, though here too a composer pops up now and then. Such as among the three generations of Lasker-Wallfisches, whose musical experiences could hardly be more different. First up is Anita Lasker who, born into a Jewish family in Breslau in 1925, would later find herself transported to Auschwitz. There, it was her cello playing, as a valued member of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, that saved her from the gas chambers.
After the War, Lasker moved to England where she became a founder member of the English Chamber Orchestra and, now married to pianist Peter Wallfisch, had a son, Raphael. In turn, Raphael Wallfisch has gone on to enjoy a career as a cellist of international acclaim, a status he shares with his Baroque violinist wife Elizabeth (née Hunt). They’ve had a son, too: Benjamin, who enjoys a life of bright lights and big stars, as a leading Hollywood TV and film composer.
In some instances, top performers hand over their abilities to the next generation on the same instrument. Quite often, however, their brood forge their own path, such as pianists Lily Maisky and Jeremy Menuhin, the children of, respectively, cellist Mischa and violinist Yehudi, or Andrew Marriner, clarinettist offspring of Neville, the violinist and conductor. As for Misha Mullov-Abbado, the double-bass-playing son of conductor Claudio Abbado and violinist Viktoria Mullova, he didn’t just opt to play a couple of octaves lower than his mum but turned his sights jazzwards too.
Musical siblings… the Kanneh-Masons
Having more than one supremely able singer or instrumentalist among siblings can prove handy – as parents like to say, they can play together nicely. Violinists Pekka Kuusisto and the late Jaakko Kuusisto, for instance, enjoyed each other’s musical company into adulthood, as do piano duos Katia & Marielle Labèque and Güher & Süher Pekinel. Violinist Renaud and cellist Gautier Capuçon often share a stage too, ditto Christian and Tanja Tetzlaff, not least as first violinist and cellist of the Tetzlaff Quartet.
But for combined sibling harmony, can anyone match the Kanneh-Masons, no fewer than seven of whom got together for a recording of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals in 2020? By that stage, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason had already become a household name, with a BBC Young Musician win and Royal Wedding solo appearance under his bow, and pianist Isata Kannah-Mason was making waves too. We’ll doubtless hear a lot more of Braimah Kanneh-Mason, Konya, Aminata (violin), Mariatu (cello) and Jeneba (piano) in years to come. Despite having been brought up at close quarters and practising in adjacent rooms, the family insist in interviews that they rarely bicker. We’ll believe them.
Musical families… unfortunate squabbles
Sadly, siblings don’t always see eye to eye, as was the case of conductors Semyon Bychkov and Yakov Kreizberg, who pursued their stellar careers at some distance from each other, both geographically and emotionally – shortly after Kreizberg’s death in 2011, Bychkov described their unresolved differences as ‘a source of sadness’. Separated from each other they may have been, but the Russian brothers were not alone in being conductors coming from the same family. Plying their trade at a similarly lofty level are the Estonian brothers Paavo Järvi and Kristjan Järvi, sons of the much loved Neeme, while Alexander Shelley has, in taking up the baton, also followed in the footsteps of his pianist-turned-conductor father, Howard.
And then there are the Kleibers. Today, Carlos Kleiber is remembered as one of the most revered, if enigmatic, conductors of the 20th century, a fitting heir to Erich Kleiber, himself once the toast of opera houses and orchestras across Europe. However, it would seem that Erich may not have always wanted it that way. While Kleiber Snr avidly steered his son towards a non-musical existence that would lead to a degree in chemistry, Carlos’s innate ability as a pianist, singer, timpanist and composer inevitably shone through. His father’s reaction? ‘What a pity,’ wrote a disappointed Erich to a friend, ‘the boy is musically talented.’